Help for my first build

[majinspy]

Hello I, like so many of the unwashed masses, desire help and advice on my project to build a PC. I have never built a PC before or even installed windows. I've always called some company, given them my money, and waited for a large box to show up. Now, I want to build my own. Plz help me I'm computer literate and I know a lot of the theory of this, even though I have no real practice besides fiddling with old computers and their parts. I've made a list of parts I think all work well together on new egg that is within my price range.
I'm a bit freaked out by this and I'm hoping you wonderful people (I'm not above flattery ) will help me go from a parts list to the beast machine I want. So, on to the list:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
This will be a gaming PC built to be expandable in the future. I want to lick the screen and taste the gunpowder...for the next 5 years.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Around 2k. My current new egg prices put me right around the low 1.8k area before mail-in rebates.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Natchez, MS, USA
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'm curently budgeted for "everything" (I think)
DVD burner ( Asus DRW-24B1ST)
Case (Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced)
Hard Drive (1 TB Western Digital Caviar Blue)
SSD drive (and adapter bracket) (Crucial M4 128GB SATA III)
Graphics card (MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III PE/OC Radeon 6950)
Sound card (DIAMOND XtremeSound XS71DDL)
Power Supply (Corsair Professional Series HX850)
RAM (Four sticks of G.Skill Ripjaws X series 4GB 240-pin DDR3 1600)
Motherboard (ASRock p67 Extreme4 gen3 LGA1155)
CPU (Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz)
OS (Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, retail not OEM)
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Only considering reusing an antec CPU liquid cooler (pump, tubes, fan, radiator, cold plate) and possibly some case fans.
6) Will you be overclocking?
There is the turbo boost option with that motherboard / CPU, but I'm not even sure about that. I probably won't be hand-setting voltage meters.
7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
I currently have two Viewsonic 20in monitors (VS11802 is the "mfg part#") with optimal resolutions of 1680x1050.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
As soon as someone more knowledgeable than me tells me that there are no glaring problems in my plan to build this thing.
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.
I'll need crossfire, USB3.0, SATA6, and eSATA. This moboard supports them all (to my understanding)
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Nope, I have a cyberpower PC with an OEM version of windows. That's why I'm buying the full retail version.


Any help is much appreciated. Thx -- John

 

[Dangman]

Well first and foremost: Welcome to the forums! Hope you enjoy your stay and that you get the help you need.

Second, please read the General Hardware FAQ as there are a ton of links on how to build a PC in that section. So you should be able to find the right guide for you on how to build a PC.

Now onto the critique of your parts:

1) Really no need for the 2600K as current games do not take advantage of the extra threads offered by the 2600K. In fact, in gaming performance, the 2600K is virtually the same as the cheaper 2500K. So unless you feel like just burning money, you'll be fine with the cheaper 2500K.

2) I would not go with that mobo because it only has a two year warranty when many similarily priced mobos have three year warranties. If you're planning on buying before the end of this month, I recommend getting this Asus mobo that's part of this combo deal:
$383 - Intel Core i5-2500K CPU + Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard Combo

Remember to buy the CPU and mobo from the above combo link as it shaves off $20.

3) Ditch that WD 1TB drive and go with this faster Hitachi drive:
$156 - Hitachi Desktar 7K1000.D HDS721010DLE630 1TB SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive

4) Which G.Skill Ripjaws X series RAM are you planning on buying?

5) Unless you have a really nice set of headphones or speakers or are somewhat of an audiophile, you really don't need a dedicated sound card. However, if you want one for whatever reason, I recommend this sound card instead:
$30 - Asus Xonar DG 5.1 Channels PCI Sound Card

6) Video card wise, that HD 6950 2GB is pretty much overkill for 1680x1050. You'll be fine with the cheaper $190 GTX 560 or $230 GTX 560 TI. However if, again, you just want to spend money, then go ahead and grab that card.

 

[Forceman]

The Corsair HX850, while a fine power supply, is kind of overkill for the build you have, unless you plan to go CrossFire in the future. A good 650W power supply would be sufficient for what you have laid out (the Corsair TX650 V2, HX650, or Antec HGC-620 for example).

 

[majinspy]

Wow, thanks so much ya'll.

To Danny Bui:
I think you're right on points 1 - 3 and 6.
The ripjaws I'm planning on buying is Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL
The soundcard is a bit of a splurge, but yes I do like my music and for 30$ its worth it for when I upgrade my speakers / headset.
The one thing I have no idea how to judge is a video card. It is the one component where stats and performance are so divorced.
Here is the best version of that videocard you suggested here.
I don't know if it matters, but I am running dual monitors.

to Forceman:
My plan was to be expandable to crossfire/sli in the future. As this thing ages I want to just pop in another video card, not another video card and power supply.

Thx for both of your replies -- John

 

[Dangman]

Here is the best version of that videocard you suggested here.

Unfortunately that card is a tad overpriced at $245 considering that the faster HD 6950 1GB costs only $5 more:
$250 - XFX HD-695X-ZNDC Radeon HD 6950 1GB PCI-E Video Card

Note that the prices I originally mentioned are the max you should be paying for those video cards.

I don't know if it matters, but I am running dual monitors.

Doesn't really matter

 

[E4g1e]

Unfortunately that card is a tad overpriced at $245 considering that the faster HD 6950 1GB costs only $5 more:
$250 - XFX HD-695X-ZNDC Radeon HD 6950 1GB PCI-E Video Card

Note that the prices I originally mentioned are the max you should be paying for those video cards.

In addition, those nice-looking coolers on the more expensive cards may increase the temperatures inside the case: Due to such coolers' open design, some or even most of the heat produced by the GPU gets pushed back into the system's case instead of being vented out at the card's backplane. In the worst cases, even the CPU temperatures would have risen enough to effectively limit overclocking (and also make the CPU run significantly hotter than normal even at a supposedly fail-safe 1.6GHz).

 

[majinspy]

Ok I swapped in the Hitachi hard drive. I was looking at video cards, and I'm wanting some room to breathe / expand here. The original 6950 2gb is, after rebate, only 30$ more than the 6950 1gb. Who knows, next I might upgrade my monitors. Also the suggested motherboard supports PCI 2.0, not the 2.1. My goggling tells me this isn't a huge deal though. Dropping down to the 2500k and a slightly less awesome motherboard have already dropped me below 1.7k.

Any suggestions on the best place to upgrade?

Again, thx to all

 

[tiraides]

Don't look at the after-rebate price, especially since it isn't the before-checkout price. That said, stick with the 2GB version of the HD 6950 since it has more memory (and you can afford it with your budget).

Don't worry about PCI-E 2.0 or PCI-E 2.1. Since the card and the board support PCI-E 2.x, you're good. Right now, however, this 6950 2GB card is on sale:

$250 - XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB (with free Deus Ex: Human Revolution game coupon)

Do you really need the HAF 932 Advanced? The HAF 922 is currently on sale.

I only recommend the retail version of Windows 7 if you plan on building a lot of computers within the next three to five years. (You should also keep in mind that Windows 8 is currently planned for a late 2012/early 2013 release.) The best way to look at things is to subtract the retail cost by the OEM cost of each system (specifically, the processor/motherboard combination) that you build. Fortunately, with Windows 7 Home Premium, you only have to build two computers during that time frame to "make up" the cost of the retail version.