€900 gaming build

[Appelsapje]

Hello all. For weeks I've been scouring the web for reviews, opinions, ideas etc. for my new PC.

This will be my first build.

I've got this:


Cooler Master CM 690 II
Asrock P67 Pro3
Intel Core i5 2500K Boxed
Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B
Corsair Vengeance CML8GX3M2A1600C9B Low Profile Blue - 8 GB - 1600mhz - 1.5V
Sapphire HD6950 Dirt3 Edition
Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ, 1TB
Crucial m4 CT064M4SSD2 64GB
Sony Optiarc AD-7260S
XFX Pro 550W


What do you guys think of this build? I'm planning on OC'ing the GPU and CPU a bit, but not too much. Not interested in crossfire.
Will the PSU manage?

 

[Dangman]

It would help if you answered the stickied "ANSWER THESE QUESTION FIRST!" so that we can help you better.

But off the bat:
1) That mobo is a poor choice since it only has a two year warranty
2) Unless you have a super low budget, I wouldn't bother with a Sapphire card on account of their two year warranty and relatively poor customer support. I'd aim for an Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, or XFX card instead
3) That PSU will manage but a tad close and it's probably overpriced.

 

[diizzy]

Since he/she's living in EU (I assume due to the currency) 3 years of warranty and/or "claim for manufacturing faults" is most likely valid. I would on the other hand look for another motherboard as ASRock is still marketed as a value brand (cheaper components) and you will stress your components more than usual since you're going to overclock. Perharps I'm a bit outdated on that but that's the whole point with ASRock unless they've changed course recently. In general the Shappire seems a bit expensive compared to other Radeon 6950 cards but it does seem to have a better cooler (less noise) the most of the other brands, I would like to remind you that Geforce 560 Ti offer very similar performance and is about 30-50 EUR cheaper than a Radeon 6950 in general. Looking at the different options the "Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti OC HDMI Dual-DVI 1GB" looks like a very good deal, comes pre-OCed and with a "silent" cooler. HDD is fine although I would rather go for Hitachi's 7K3000 series myself. As for the PSU it'll do fine, I would on the other hand ensure that it's a Seasonic made PSU since not all (?) XFXs PSUs are made by Seasonic. I don't really see where the overpriced claim comes from as they seem to be quite the bargain here in Sweden at least.
//Danne

 

[Appelsapje]

It would help if you answered the stickied "ANSWER THESE QUESTION FIRST!" so that we can help you better.

But off the bat:
1) That mobo is a poor choice since it only has a two year warranty
2) Unless you have a super low budget, I wouldn't bother with a Sapphire card on account of their two year warranty and relatively poor customer support. I'd aim for an Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, or XFX card instead
3) That PSU will manage but a tad close and it's probably overpriced.

Oops, I'll include the answers to the sticky here:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Mainly gaming, school work too of course, but it should cope
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? <€900 max, in total (shipping and tax included)
3) Where do you live? Belgium
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. All parts posted in the first post.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model. An 250GB sata HDD from my old pc
6) Will you be overclocking? Yes, GPU and CPU.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have? 23" - 1920*1080
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Hopefully this month
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. Future proof board, crossfire is not needed, neither is onboard video.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? Yes - Windows 7 professional 7 bit

Your questions:
1) I had quite some trouble choosing between the p67 and Z68. I could go for an Asus P8P67 LE or MSI P67S-C43 (B3) or even a Gigabyte GA-Z68P-DS3 for almost the same price.
2) I'll look around some more, but I think it's fine.

Since he/she's living in EU (I assume due to the currency) 3 years of warranty and/or "claim for manufacturing faults" is most likely valid. I would on the other hand look for another motherboard as ASRock is still marketed as a value brand (cheaper components) and you will stress your components more than usual since you're going to overclock. Perharps I'm a bit outdated on that but that's the whole point with ASRock unless they've changed course recently. In general the Shappire seems a bit expensive compared to other Radeon 6950 cards but it does seem to have a better cooler (less noise) the most of the other brands, I would like to remind you that Geforce 560 Ti offer very similar performance and is about 30-50 EUR cheaper than a Radeon 6950 in general. Looking at the different options the "Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti OC HDMI Dual-DVI 1GB" looks like a very good deal, comes pre-OCed and with a "silent" cooler. HDD is fine although I would rather go for Hitachi's 7K3000 series myself. As for the PSU it'll do fine, I would on the other hand ensure that it's a Seasonic made PSU since not all (?) XFXs PSUs are made by Seasonic. I don't really see where the overpriced claim comes from as they seem to be quite the bargain here in Sweden at least.
//Danne

The Sapphire has great performance though, and is quite silent. The 560 seems to draw quite some more power..

 

[Dangman]

Since he/she's living in EU (I assume due to the currency) 3 years of warranty and/or "claim for manufacturing faults" is most likely valid.

Wait, so it's a minimum of three years, not two years, for the warranty over there in Europe? I thought it was two years hence I said two years for the AsRock (it's only one year here in the U.S.)

As for the PSU it'll do fine, I would on the other hand ensure that it's a Seasonic made PSU since not all (?) XFXs PSUs are made by Seasonic. I don't really see where the overpriced claim comes from as they seem to be quite the bargain here in Sweden at least.
//Danne

All XFX PSUs are made by Seaonic. Granted lower quality versions of Seasonic's PSUs but all Seasonics nonethelss. Anyway, my overpriced claim is based on its price here in the U.S: The sligthly higher quality Seasonic made Antec Neo Eco 620C and Delta made Antec High Current Gamer 620W which have more power on the +12V rail costs just as much as the XFX Pro 550W. But that is based on U.S pricing and availability Hence why I said "probably overpriced".

Your questions:
1) I had quite some trouble choosing between the p67 and Z68. I could go for an Asus P8P67 LE or MSI P67S-C43 (B3) or even a Gigabyte GA-Z68P-DS3 for almost the same price.

Go with the MSI mobo from that list.

 

[diizzy]

Don't skimp on the motherboard, it'll bite you in the end.
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3 should be pretty decent if you want to OC I guess, I'm pretty much out of the loop when it comes to overclocking since I think its a waste of time especially since you almost every time sacrifice reliability and stability.
I don't know what you've read but 560 is on par with 6950 - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/geforce-gtx-560-ti_4.html#sect0
If you really need to choose something from that list the Asus board looks like the best bet, but as I said earlier don't skimp.

Well, you usually have the warranty 1 or 2 years (usually) and you may/may not have 3 years (by law) for manufacturing faults or faulty components. This does however not apply to all types of products since you consider wear and tear into this.

//Danne

 

[Appelsapje]

Why the MSI (just interested), because of the name?

And why the choice for the Z68, if I'm not into video-editing and don't need a integrated gpu, it doesn't really matter, right?

 

[diizzy]

No recent Intel chipset have integrated gpu, if you want to overclock Z68 is to recommend.
//Danne

 

[Dangman]

Why the MSI (just interested), because of the name?

Because out of that list of motherboards you provided, it's the one I trust the most and think it's a better value. The Asus P67 mobos seems to have a little bit more issues than MSI or Gigabyte P67 motherboards. Virtually every Gigabyte P67 and Z68 mobo still uses the old BIOs interface whereas MSI and Asus have switched over to the newer, updated, and easier to use UEFI interface. AFAIK, there's no widespread issues with current MSI P67 mobos and all of MSI's Z68 and P67 mobos uses the UEFI interface. Hence my recommendation.

As a result of the above reasoning, I disagree with the recommendation for the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3 since the MSI Z68A-GD55 costs the same. So if you do want to spend a bit more on the motherboard, definitely go for the MSI Z68-GD55 or the MSI P67A-GD55 or MSI P67A-GD65.

And why the choice for the Z68, if I'm not into video-editing and don't need a integrated gpu, it doesn't really matter, right?

Yes, no need for the Z68 unless you're planning on using the onboard GPU of the CPU.

 

[diizzy]

Okay, I remember reading somewhere that Z-chipset as able to change multipliers while P-chipsets didn't but I guess I was wrong. But then again, I don't care about overclocking. The main reason going to for something better is that power regulation will be much more strained on cheaper boards (MSI P67A-GD65 should be pretty nice in that regard). As for BIOSes, UEFI doesn't really give anything new (at least for now) except a GUI. Sorry for the noise...
//Danne

 

[xBanzai89]

If that is the case and you are not overclocking just get a 2400 and H67 board. No reason for a high end overclocking board with multi gpu support imo.