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Baby's first build.

R

rijel83

n00b
Joined
Nov 28, 2011
Messages
3
Well it looks like my last computer is about to bite the big one, and is at the point where a brand new build is my best option. My current experience is a little limited, swapping out graphics cards and RAM and installing a new OS being about the sum total, so apologies in advance for any naivety/ignorance.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Primarily gaming, but also web browsing and some (very) amateur video editing.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
In the region of about £1300, although my current estimate is around £1400 so there is room for flexibility. Most of this has been sourced through ebuyer.com.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

UK
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, Case, PSU, RAM, Video card, HDD, Optical, cooling.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
None
6) Will you be overclocking?
Not initially, however, I would like the option to do so later
7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
24" 1920x1080
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next 2-3 weeks, although I am tempted to hold fire and see if there are any bargains to be had in the sales.
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.
Nothing in particular, just "futureproofing" and scope for future upgrades. Also as a first time builder anything that could help simplify a build, such as a particular chassis/psu combination would be welcome.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Win 7 64bit


I have been sourcing parts over the last couple of days, and frankly would love some opinions:

MoBo: Asus p8z68-V pro
Case: Coolermaster haf 922
CPU: i7 2600k (I have seen posts about this being overpriced and that the i5 2500k may be better suited, however looking ahead would this not be a safer bet for future releases which may take advantage of multi threading?)
GFx: Asus GTX 580 DirectCU II 1536 gddr5 (Again have seen posts stating this would be overkill but this does have the advantage of leaving a pci slot free for a future SLI, and from what I understand the 6950 range is hampered slightly by pairing it with an intel cpu)
RAM: GSKILL 8Gb 2x4 DDR3 2133 or 1600 (undecided)
SSD: Corsair 120Gb force 3 ssd (have seen a lot of love for the Crucial M4, but the Corsair seems to have a higher read/write speed so I think I'm missing something here)
HDD: Samsung HD103sj spinpoint f3 1Tb
Optical: Samsung SH B123L 12x Bdrom/dvd RW
PSU: Corsair TX 750 v2 80plus Bronze certified. (My main lack of knowledge unfortunately. I suspect this is more than I need for now, but with future expansions...)
Cooling: Arctic cooling freezer 13

I do have a few concerns also:

1) Considering my last PC's overheating issues, I am a little paranoid about overall cooling and airflow, so some advice on the subject would be most welcome.

2) The 580 card is rather chunky and it's spec mentions "To have the best cooling performance ASUS ENGTX580 DCII/2DIS/1536MD5 extends the Fansink to 2.5 slot , please check your motherboard slot space before SLI" which I have never heard of and wondered if this will affect future expansion.

3) Some fans come with pre applied mx-2, should this be removed? (if so how?) and have a different thermal paste applied.

4) Have I missed anything?

5) If anyone knows of a foolproof/idiots guide to PC building, (other than the ones linked in the sticky) preferably with cartoon elves, that would be AWESOME.

Thanks for taking the time to read.
 
I don't know for sure, but I think the corsair uses the sand force controller that has reliability issues.

That's also a lot of card for 1920x1080, unless your running 120hz it may be better to step down, and then upgrade sooner.

That card is huge, if your mobo doesn't have 2 card spacing between pic-e you won't be able to do sli.

I'd just get a decent cooler like 212+ and you won't overheat.
 
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I'd say drop to the 2500k if you're just gaming. You're not really likely to see any games take advantage of HT in my opinion (If anyone has another opinion I'd love to hear it and why). As for the GPU, it's definitely overkill for your resolution, and I have no idea what you mean by hampered in regards to the 6950 range. As for the 2.5 slot, it essentially means that it's got a gigantic cooler so if you have mobo that goes PCI-e x16 -> another slot -> PCI-e x16, you'll be prevented from running SLI, but off the top of my head I think your mobo is laid out the same as mine and you should be good to go.

Cooling wise I'd say go for a Hyper 212+ because it should be cheaper.

Other than that, it looks like a pretty solid build.
 
Just get DDR3-1600 as well, no need to spend extra for faster RAM as it doesn't make any performance difference.
 
I'd pick DDR3-1600 just for future-proofing/resale value. They cost about the same.
 
Wow, first of all thank you for the fast responses.
If it's a reliability issue regarding the SSD, that would certainly make sense to swap it to the m4.
The Hyper 212+ is a little more expensive in the UK compared to the Arctic, however it would be a small price to pay for a known, stable cooling system, so thanks for pointing that out (it was buried deep on the website with no picture).
Would replacing the video card, the Asus GTX 570 DirectCU II 1280MB GDDR5 seem more reasonable?
 
Unless you want the highest possible settings, the GTX 570 (or the AMD 6970 - about the same price) is sufficient at 1080p. The GTX 580 doesn't have enough of a performance increase over the 570 to justify its significantly higher cost unless you just have to have the best possible card.
 
Sorry missed your already planning on different cooler. Any decent aftermarket will work to oc with, it's just at what speeds, temps, and noise.
 
For the graphics card, I'm currently running a MSI 580 Lightning on a 24'' 1920x1080 LED, and it runs all the newest games at max settings at 50+fps. A 570 can probably work too if you lower the MSAA and what not, but I just like having everything turned on even if I can't see it =P

I definitely suggest getting more RAM, since it's so cheap right now. Get at least 12 GB DDR 1600 if not 16 GB, but make sure it'll fit under whatever cpu cooler you plan on buying.

Also, your MoBo seems a bit overkill for those specs. You can drop it down to a regular Asus P8z68 Gen 3 and save like 30 bucks without any drop in performance, since you don't plan on doing a crazy RAID array or anything.

As for SSD, listed read/write speeds aren't everything. Sandforce based SSDs have been having a lot of issues, as you can read on half the reviews on Newegg/Amazon. The Crucial M4 is much more reliable, and on SATA III fast enough for just about anything you can throw at it.

Also, your current planned power supply (Corsair 750) would be sufficient for your current listed parts, but if you ever plan on putting your graphics card in SLI or on overclocking, you may want to consider a 850 or even 1000w.
 
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