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Help with Gaming/Multimedia build

F

Fenian

n00b
Joined
Apr 14, 2008
Messages
20
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming/Photoshop/Multimedia
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$600, tax and shipping included
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Canada
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.
Case, Graphics card, motherboard, CPU cooler
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
DVD Burner, Blu-Ray burner, i7-2700k CPU, PC Power and Cooling 750W Silencer Quad Crossfire Edition, WD 1TB Caviar Black, Seagate 500GB 7200.11, Intel 320 120GB SSD
6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes
7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it? 1920x1080, 22", Dell 2209WA
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
This week, Boxing Week 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 (as a backup or main GPU)? etc.
USB 3, SATA 6Gb/s, onboard video(part of CPU), eSATA, RAID, Crossfire/SLI support
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 Ultimate 64 bit


OK. I am looking at building a system shortly and are looking at the following parts. What do you think?

NZXT Phantom case (can get for $95 right now)
ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe GEN3 mobo (ready for Ivy Bridge)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU cooler
Nvidia GTX560 Ti graphics card

They would be joining the following parts:
LG Blu-Ray burner (free from Intel with points)
Lite-On DVD burner
Intel 320 series 120GB SSD
8GB Patriot Division 2 Viper Extreme RAM P/N PXD38G1600LLK 8-9-8-24 timings
WD Caviar Black 1TB & Seagate 500GB 7200.11 hard drives for storage
Intel Core i7-2700K CPU(paid $89, thanks Intel!)

Do these look like like a good combo or should I be eyeballing something else? The Thermalright HR-02 Macho and True Spirit coolers are not available in Canada, so the 212 Evo seems like a good substitution.

Looking to do moderate overclocking, around 4.5Ghz.

Is this a good build or should I be looking at something else? I am quite fond of NZXT cases.

I am stepping up from an i7-920 D0 stepping with a ASUS P6X58D Deluxe board and 6GB of Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1333 RAM.

Any help is appreciated.

Regards,

Fenian
 
I strongly recommend that you replace that RAM: Sandy Bridge CPUs can be permanently damaged by running any RAM above 1.575V. Your particular Patriot kit, however, requires all of 1.65V just to run at its advertised speed and timings. What's more, 1.65V-rated RAM sometimes won't work at all at the lower voltages required of SB (unless you are willing to permanently lock the memory speed all the way down to a fail-safe DDR3-800/PC3-6400 speed and extremely loose 11-11-11-33 timings).

In addition, that P8Z68 Deluxe is, simply put, way overpriced for a Z68 board whose onboard video capability has been disabled (and thus making it little more than a glorified P67 mobo). Plus, the Deluxe uses a PLX extender chip for the PCI-e x1 and x4 slots, which can create new compatibility issues.
 
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Fenian said:
OK. What is a good GEN3 Z68 board?
Click to expand...

There are two from Asus itself that use the Gen3 board design and the full capabilities of the Z68 chipset:

  • P8Z68-V/GEN3
  • P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3

Note the inclusion of the "V" in the model name. The P8Z68 Deluxe has no "V", and therefore no video outs whatsoever (and also has QuickSync, Virtu and maybe SRT SSD caching capability disabled as well).

And both of those boards with a "V" actually cost significantly less than the P8Z68 Deluxe.
 
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I'd recommend the vanilla P8Z68-V, as it doesn't sound like you need the extra ports (2xSATA 6gb and 1394) that the Pro offers. Otherwise they are the same.
 
+1 on changing RAM. Go with a 16GB 4x4 kit, should be around $70 - $80 USD. What kind of games are you planning on playing? Might be worth it to up the video card to the newer 560 Ti.
 
Thanks for the advice, I am going with 2x Corsair CML8GX3M2A1600C9W, 8GB each kit, 1.35V DDR3-1600 low profile RAM. They are $39 each kit right now on sale.

As a bonus it will go nicely with my white and black Phantom case. I also picked up the Asus Z68-V Pro board and the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo cooler. I will post pics when it is built.

Regards,

Fenian
 
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