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Custom Build Still Good?

D

Dartz

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 8, 2007
Messages
72
Hey guys I didn't want to bring a 2 month old thread back to life so I'm just going to ask my question here.

A while ago I came asking for help building a new pc and had all the parts figured out and ready to purchase. However life decided to hold me hostage for a bit and now, finally, I really am ready to purchase next week.

So my question is: Are the following parts still the best I can get <$1,500?

The List:
MSI P67A-GD65 $179.99

GIGABYTE GV-N570D5-13I-B GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) $349.99

SILVERSTONE ST1000-P 1000W ATX 12V $184.99

Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz $314.99

SATA Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB $114.99

G.SKILL Value Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 $38.99

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 $39.99

COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 $199.99

Total: $1,479.99 shipped

Just to be clear, I won't be getting into photography like I thought this summer so I'm not sure if I should go with the 2500 over the 2600 now. Also since I'm not getting into photography, I would like to be able to game to the fullest extent possible (Blops, B3, etc) so I think I'll be adding a second video card down the line (if possible?) if anyone could answer those questions I would appreciate it.

Thanks everyone for any input.
 
Here's his old questionaire:

Hey guys,

I posted some time ago and you all helped me put together a great pc. Thank you.

The reason I'm back is because my brother wants to buy my current pc and that means that I will need a new one, not that I'm complaining. I'll try to answer the questions as thoroughly as possible.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
All of the above, I plan to play games like Black Ops, Civ 5, etc, and would prefer to get the best experience possible out of these games. I plan on using Photoshop in the future because I plan on getting into photography this summer.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
My budget will be $1200~$1400 but I would really like to stick to <$1300; tax and shipping included
3) Where do you live?
Oklahoma
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.
I'll need: Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Video Card, DVD burner, Power Supply, HDD (preferably SSD for OS), Case
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
ASUS VW266H Black 25.5"; G18 mouse (would like to upgrade if it stays on budget); keyboard (Ditto); 320GB Sata HDD
6) Will you be overclocking?
No
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Have a ASUS VW266H Black 25.5"; Would like to upgrade to a 20/30/20 setup in the future.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
The next 2 weeks
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s are nice but not a deal breaker; SLI
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Windows 7 Professional x64 bit


I will only have 2 hard drives in this pc (OS hard drive and a 320GB SATA storage/media drive).

Again, thanks everyone for your help.

Edit: Ok everyone, I'm about 2 weeks out for purchasing. I've updated the above questions to reflect my new circumstances. I've put together a prelim-build, but something tells me it can be much better:

Case) HAF X RC-942-KKN1 - $189.99

RAM) 2x G.SKILL Value Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 - $79.98

MB) MSI P67A-G45 (B3) - $139.99

CPU) Intel Core i7-2600 Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) - $299.99

Video Card) 2x EVGA 01G-P3-1366-TR GeForce GTX 460 SE (Fermi) - $319.98

SSD) G.SKILL Sniper Gaming Series FM-25S2S-60GBSR - $125.99

PSU) COOLER MASTER Silent Pro RSA00-AMBAJ3-US - $169.99

1325.91 w/o shipping
 
So now that I've read this, how much would you be into photoshop? A lot or a little? If you're really not that into it and just want to do photo editing as a hobby, then I'd recommend going with an AMD card rather than an NVIDIA card since AMD cards tend to perform better in gaming and are just generally a better "bang for your buck" card.
 
Dartz said:
Just to be clear, I won't be getting into photography like I thought this summer so I'm not sure if I should go with the 2500 over the 2600 now. Also since I'm not getting into photography, I would like to be able to game to the fullest extent possible (Blops, B3, etc) so I think I'll be adding a second video card down the line (if possible?) if anyone could answer those questions I would appreciate it.

Thanks everyone for any input.
Click to expand...

A bit has changed which is why I'm just wondering if that build is still viable or if something better has come along that would be a better fit for me.
 
If you want to overclock, get a 2500k, there is no need to get a 2600k for your uses. Use that money to buy a bigger SSD / 8 gigs of RAM. People will tell you that 8 gigs is overkill, but it is cheap and better to have too much than not enough. You will want more room on your SSD to put the games you are playing and move them on and off.

How does the 570 compared to the 6950? The 6950 is much cheaper, so you might save some money there is performance is comparable. I haven't kept up with the new NVIDIA benches. If that's a 1080 monitor, I'd say the 570 is overkill.

I don't know much about that case, but I wouldn't be dropping $200 on one if you are trying to squeeze out more bang for your buck here. There are plenty of other good, cheap options--the Antec 300 comes to mind.

That PSU is probably more power than you need. Try one of the Corsair TX series if you are wanting to keep some headroom and save $75+. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...p=Cat_Power_Supplies-_-YTVideo-_-YT17-139-022
 
Last edited:
I'll take a stab at it:

$260 - MSI P67A-GD65 + CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600
$209 - Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
$240 - XFX HD-695X-ZNFC Radeon HD 6950 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$140 - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1CCA 2.5" 64GB SSD
$70 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$185 - Silverstone ST1000-P 1000W ATX 12V
$21 - Samsung SH-S222AB SATA DVD Burner
Total: $1125

Since you're not OC, I removed the HSF since you shouldn't need it for gaming and Oklahoma isn't that warm of an environment. I also put in an i5-2500 which is the not-so-overclocking enabled version of the 2500k. After a case, you'll still have about $100~$300 to decide either to buy a monitor/2nd GPU/ or upgrade mouse/keyboard as listed in the OP. I also don't recommend using your old HDD except for backups simply because HDDs are one of the few pieces of hardware that lose their performance very quickly with time and usage.

Case wise, I recommend any of these cases:
$60 - Cooler Master HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 ATX Case
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$106 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$110 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Case
$110 - NZXT Whisper WHI - 001BK ATX Full Tower Case
$120 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$165 - Corsair Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$220 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case
$220 - Cooler Master ATCS 840 RC-840-KKN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$230 - Silverstone FT02B ATX Case
$220 - Lian Li PC-A71F Black ATX Case
$290 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case
$330 - Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ07B Full Tower ATX Case
 
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