Looking For Input - Sandy Bridge Build

mikeohara

mikeohara

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 24, 2002
Messages
368
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing?
Gaming

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$1500, Tax and shipping included

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible. Live in the U.S.,
I live in White Oak, TX and can travel to Dallas, TX to purchase parts.

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, Motherboard, Memory, SSD, Case, Keyboard

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
a 3gb GTX580 made by Zotac, 7 Terabytes worth of Western Digital Hard Drives, an Antec TruePower Quattro 1200w PSU (new in box I might add), and a Asus Blu-ray burner. Also a Corsair H70 with 2 Scythe Kaze Ultra Fans.

6) Will you be overclocking?
yes

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1920x1080, and 23"

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within 3 weeks, probably the weekend of the GamExperience event or the following weekend.

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 3.0 support and SATA 6gb/s are at the forefront, I'd also like future support for Ivy Bridge and PCI-E 3.0

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
No, I have a OEM license of Windows 7 Pro x64 attached to my other motherboard.
 
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What matters more to you: The ability to fit all three of your video cards without cutting off internal USB ports, onboard reset/power buttons as well as harder to route case power cables, or PCI-E 3.0 capability?
 
Danny Bui said:
What matters more to you: The ability to fit all three of your video cards without cutting off internal USB ports, onboard reset/power buttons as well as harder to route case power cables, or PCI-E 3.0 capability?
Click to expand...

Here's what I've got listed as far as what matters:

1.) I plan on using front USB 3/2 headers and audio inputs. I don't mind having a breakout box mounted in my case either that will have extras, because I am planning on buying a USB 3.0 flash drive when I get this too.
2.) I like the idea of having onboard power/reset buttons, but I want to not spend 5-6 hours routing cables to their destination unless it's absolutely necessary.
3.) PCI-E 3.0 is last because I don't buy video cards very often (I bought my GTX 580 3gb last year and will probably replace it after I get a job and graduate college). I wouldn't mind having PCI-E 3.0 there if I so happened to replace my video card with nVidia's PCI-E 3.0 graphics card before the end of the two years is up though.
 
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Oh shit. I totally misread what you wrote: I thought you wrote "3 x GTX 580 cards".

Definitely different mobo recommendations then. Since you're willing to drive to Dallas and therefore to Microcenter to buy parts, please come back in a week and bump up this thread. By then Microcenter should have released their January flyer.

But for now, look through these cases and see which one you like:
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58 ATX Case
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$80 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W ATX Case
$65 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$98 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$100 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$120 - Lian Li PC-9F ATX Case
$120 - Fractal Design Define R3 Arctic White ATX Case
$130 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black Pearl ATX Case
$120 - Fractal Design Define R3 Silver Arrow ATX Case
$133 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$137 - Antec P280 ATX Case
$140 - Antec Performance One Series P183 V3 ATX Case
$143 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$144 - Silverstone RV03B-W ATX case
$150 - Corsair Graphite Series 600TM ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$164 - Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$178 - Silverstone RV02B-EW ATX case
$190 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case
$230 - Silverstone FT02B ATX Case
$270 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case

As for the SSD, I recommend this:
$200 - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SSD
 
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Check this combo out on newegg, you might like it.

  • Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 ...
  • ASUS P8P67 DELUXE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
  • ASUS ENGTX560 TI DCII/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video ...
  • CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9
  • COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN2 CM690 II Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
  • CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power ...
  • Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

was: $1,049.93
Discount: -$74.94
Combo Price:$974.99

You can add edit/change whatever to your liking. Goodluck and post what you get!
 
Richneerd's suggestion is not that great..

Although the CPU is good, the motherboard is extremely over priced, that 560 Ti is over priced and wouldn't fit well with a 1080P monitor with it's 1GB VRAM and the hard drive is slow compared to other drives for similar prices.
 
Skillz said:
Richneerd's suggestion is not that great..

Although the CPU is good, the motherboard is extremely over priced, that 560 Ti is over priced and wouldn't fit well with a 1080P monitor with it's 1GB VRAM and the hard drive is slow compared to other drives for similar prices.
Click to expand...

That, and I wouldn't get an Asus P67 offering. Thier Z68 boards seem fine, but they had a [relative] lot of problems with the P67 ones.
 
Forceman said:
That, and I wouldn't get an Asus P67 offering. Thier Z68 boards seem fine, but they had a [relative] lot of problems with the P67 ones.
Click to expand...

I personally wouldn't get Asus anything at this time, as far as motherboards are concerned: I'm starting to read about higher-than-average quality control issues with all of its current mobos, especially its P67 models and its Z68 Gen3 mobos. Worse, their RMA support and quality is worse than average as far as motherboard RMAs are concerned.

Unfortunately, there is no good alternative brand of motherbboards right now: All of the others have one or more serious disadvantages. And the only ones that are saddled with the least issues are all equipped with legacy (non-EFI) BIOSes.

And no, I'm not against EFI or UEFI for the BIOS. It's just that the manufacturers who implement such BIOSes skimp on hardware quality control. Thus, until the manufacturers fix their quality control, I'm now recommending only those motherboards with legacy (non-EFI or only partially EFI/UEFI compatible) BIOSes right now (this would limit the choices to Gigabyte and Intel).
 
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