• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

First Time Builder

S

Soupster

n00b
Joined
Oct 15, 2011
Messages
13
I've really gotten into PC gaming (have an ASUS G50) and I'm ready to make the jump to desktop since my laptop isn't cutting it anymore. Never built one before however I've lurked pc forums for awhile so I have some knowledge about hardware. I def want to go i5 2500k and want a Corsair 500R (the white one is sexy) but everything else is up for grabs. I would like to have a strong enough GPU to max the majority of games for a little while. Also I'm a fan of Nvidia cards but an ATI isn't totally out of the question.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? 1200-1400 tax/shipping included
3) Which country do you live in? TN, 37115
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, PSU, Case, HDD, GPU, Optical Drive, Motherboard, etc. Might have left something out, just going off the top of my head but basically the standard parts to build a PC
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Nothing to reuse
6) Will you be overclocking? Eventually but right now I'd be fine stick with the stock heatsink if it won't fit in the budget.
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it? It's an ASUS 23.5in 1920x1080
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?The latest would be early November.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? USB 3.0, SATA 6, SLI for later down the road.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? No I would need Win7 64bit

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
 
You could have included that last bit within your first post.

I have a couple of more questions:

- Which games do you plan on playing?
- Are you ready to buy and build now? Or do you want to wait until November?
 
tiraides said:
You could have included that last bit within your first post.

I have a couple of more questions:

- Which games do you plan on playing?
- Are you ready to buy and build now? Or do you want to wait until November?
Click to expand...

My bad, I'm new. I plan on playing Skyrim, BF3 (although I know I won't max with my budget), Crysis 1/2, Deus Ex, Metro 2033 (I know I won't max that either). Pretty much RPG's, FPS, the occasional racing game. And I'd be ready to build now but can wait til November if there's a chance on prices be significantly cheaper.
 
Here's something to start from:

$204.99 (after coupon code) Intel i5-2500K
$114.99 MSI Z68A-G43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$46.99 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
$329.99 EVGA 012-P3-1571-AR GeForce GTX 570
$94 (after coupon code) Corsair 750TX V2
$64.99 HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000.D 1TB Hard Drive
$25.99 CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ CPU heatsink w/ fan
$99.99 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM

That's about $1020 without a case, which you can pick up for under $100 (see Danny Bui's list for choices), or optical drive (did you want Blu-ray?) and before MIRs. If you want to save $100 you can drop down to either an AMD 6950 or the GTX 560 Ti, both available for around $200-220, and which should be capable of running 1080p without any problems.

As for whether to wait, there aren't any new releases of hardware anticipated in the short term, so the only benefit of waiting would be to see what sales there are around Thanksgiving.
 
Last edited:
Forceman said:
Here's something to start from:

$204.99 (after coupon code) Intel i5-2500K
$114.99 MSI Z68A-G43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$46.99 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
$329.99 EVGA 012-P3-1571-AR GeForce GTX 570
$94 (after coupon code) Corsair 750TX V2
$64.99 HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000.D 1TB Hard Drive
$25.99 CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ CPU heatsink w/ fan
$99.99 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM

That's about $1020 without a case, which you can pick up for under $100 (see Danny Bui's list for choices), or optical drive (did you want Blu-ray?) and before MIRs. If you want to save $100 you can drop down to either an AMD 6950 or the GTX 560 Ti, both available for around $200-220, and which should be capable of running 1080p without any problems.

As for whether to wait, there aren't any new releases of hardware anticipated in the short term, so the only benefit of waiting would be to see what sales there are around Thanksgiving.
Click to expand...

Man, I left more out. Yea, don't need Blu Ray, don't even need a burner just a drive. Also I was looking at 560ti's and had a question about this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127578 how would that stack up to the 570 you posted?
 
Here's the case list that Forceman mentioned:
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58 ATX Case
$80 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56W ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance nVidia Edition ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$100 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-60FN ATX Case
$125 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$125 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$125 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-002OR Black Finish w/Orange Trim Full Tower ATX Case

Soupster said:
Man, I left more out. Yea, don't need Blu Ray, don't even need a burner just a drive. Also I was looking at 560ti's and had a question about this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127578 how would that stack up to the 570 you posted?
Click to expand...
That 560 Ti is a pretty bad buy as its shipped price is roughly $273. For $7 more, you can get the faster HD 6950 2GB like this:
$280 - XFX HD-695X-CDFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB PCI-E Video Card

Oh and that GTX 560 Ti would be about 10% to 15% slower than the GTX 570 depending on the game. The HD 6950 2GB is roughly 10% faster than the GTX 560 Ti.
 
IIRC, NewEgg charges Tennessee residents sales tax. You may want to consider a build from Amazon instead:

$218 - Intel Core i5 2500K
$26 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
$120 - Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3
$44 - Kingston HyperX 2x4GB DDR3 1333 1.5V CL9
$60 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB HDD
$21 - Lite-On iHAS324 SATA DVD burner
$340 - VisionTek 900353 HD 6970 2GB
$105 - Corsiar TX750 V2 750W PSU
$60 - Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX mid-tower case
$100 - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM
=====
$1094 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

Some people may nitpick with some of the parts that I've chosen, but I only chose parts that were currently in stock at a relatively low price (specifically, the hard drive and video card).

Since you have some room in your budget (assuming you choose everything from my build), an optional yet highly recommended addition would be the Crucial M4 128GB SSD ($198 at Amazon). Though you probably can't place all of your software on it, the SSD performs much faster than even the VelociRaptor HDDs.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
 
I would go with the Corsair TX750 V2 over that Seasonic - with the code the Corsair is cheaper to go along with being more powerful. That Asus board is nice (I have one myself), but you can find good Z68 boards for about $50 cheaper, if you wanted.
 
Forceman said:
I would go with the Corsair TX750 V2 over that Seasonic - with the code the Corsair is cheaper to go along with being more powerful. That Asus board is nice (I have one myself), but you can find good Z68 boards for about $50 cheaper, if you wanted.
Click to expand...

Will do, I was just looking for a modular one but when I think about it, that case I picked is huge so I shouldn't have a problem with cable management. Other than that is everything pretty solid?
 
Soupster said:
Man, I left more out. Yea, don't need Blu Ray, don't even need a burner just a drive.
Click to expand...

In this case, DVD burners deliver the best value right now: Read-only optical drives now cost as much money as most DVD burners - and more expensive than some burners.
 
Right now, IMO, two: the ability to use the embedded GPU in each Sandy Bridge processor and the ability to switch (through Virtu) between "onboard" graphics and a dedicated video card. Z68 boards also feature SSD caching, which allows you to use a 64GB or smaller SSD as a swap disk for an HDD serving as a primary drive, but a fast SSD would outperform any HDD regardless. Newer, more expensive Z68 boards also support PCI Express 3.0, but it's not a necessity at this time.

But the real advantage of going with that particular Z68 board over any other P67 board is price. You get a lot of features in that $120 Z68 board that you'd have to pay more for in a P67 board.
 
Soupster said:
Are there any advantages to going Z68 over P67?
Click to expand...

Biggest advantage now is that they seem to be better supported by the manufacturers (since they are the new generation) with BIOS updates, etc. Z68 is basically a P67+, so there really isn't any reason not to get one.
 
Sorry for the long bump. I have enough to purchase everything in my build except a HDD (have a SSD for windows and other things) and a video card. Doesn't the 1155 chipsets have onboard GPU's that I can use until I get a video card. It would only be another week or two before I got a video card and a hdd, I'm just getting antsy and want to build this thing already :p
 
The P67 boards don't allow you to use the IGP embedded within the Sandy Bridge processor. The Z68 boards, particularly the Gigabyte board mentioned earlier, will.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top