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Pick my build apart.

F

Fixall

[H]ard|Gawd
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Joined
May 17, 2011
Messages
1,396
So I finally did it. I finally pulled the trigger on the last part (basically) for my dream budget build. It took me about 6 months, but not only was I able to wait around for deals, but I was able to increase my overall budget. It doesn't sting as bad when you're buying a few parts a month. I've been gaming with an i3-2100 and a gtx 460, which has done surprisingly well, but it was really time for a change. So anyways, here's what I ended up with. Feel free to give me some constructive criticism. I still have a little in my budget to make some changes.

*prices are before tax and shipping, but I avoided both in most cases because of newegg/forums.

Case - Antec Three Hundred Illusion - $20 (I purchased this from a friend before he even received it in the mail, as he decided to go with a haf-x. Twenty bucks was a no brainer. I have a corsair 650d I'm saving for my Ivy bridge/Kepler build but I have been giving some thought to using it now).

Motherboard - ASRock p67 Extreme4 Gen3 - $100 (A kind soul is purchasing this at Micro Center for me today and shipping it. :) I know it's a p67, but z68 has nothing I need. And come on... Sli bridge, front panel for USB 3, and a decent mb for a single Ben Franklin isn't bad).

CPU - Intel i7-2600k - $230 (This is the other half of the bundle I am receiving from Micro Center. I was originally going to go with a 2500k @ $180, but I couldn't pass up this price).

GPU - EVGA GTX 580 - $360 (Again the original plan gets thwarted! I was intending to sli the gtx 460 I had, but I was starting to near memory limitations in swtor and thought "what the hell." I bought this here off the forums).

CPU Cooler - Corsair H50 - $20 (I picked this up at Best Buy at this price. I had intended to go high end air cooling, but I'm not complaining).

Sound Card - Asus Xonar DG - $10 (Got this from Newegg as an open box. Looked unopened, works perfectly).

Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar Blue 640GB - $25 (Bought this at a local electronics store on Black Friday. I'll upgrade this when the current hard drive market goes back to normal).

SSD - Corsair Force 3 120GB - $100 (I know, I know, it's asynchronous... But 120gb for $100 is a steal. Again purchased here on [H]).

RAM - Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (4gb x2) 1600mhz - $30 (Newegg shellshocker).

Optical Drive - Asus 24x DVD Burner - FREE (received as a free gift with the purchase of my monitor. I plan on picking up a blu ray drive a little later down the road).

Power Supply - Antec High Current Gamer 750w - $75 (Another Newegg shellshocker. I picked this up when I was going to go with the gtx 460's in sli, but it should power an overclocked 580 and 2600k nicely).

Display - Asus VH238H 23" 1920x1080 LED LCD - $160 (purchased from Newegg when it first came out, I think I was the second to review it lol. I picked this up cause I was running a really bad dell CRT on my old computer. This is a placeholder as I'm really hoping to see a 120hz ips on the market soon).

Mouse - Razer Deathadder Black - $30 (Purchased at a local electronics store on Black Friday. This is the most comfortable mouse I have ever used. Came with a free copy of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Vietnam).

Keyboard - Filco Ninja Majestouch-2 Tenkeyless (cherry mx browns) - $150 (excessive, yes. But this is the one thing I really, REALLY was set on getting. This is my dream keyboard).

Speakers - Klipsch Promedia 2.1 - $80 (A friend picked these up for me from Best Buy with his employee discount. I am absolutely in love with these).

Thermal Paste - Arctic Cooling MX-4 - $5 (Purchased at a local electronics shop. Never used it before, thought i'd give it a shot).

Extra Fan For Push/Pull With H50 - Antec Tricool 3 Speed 70cfm - $5 (Bought this so as to have matching fans in the push/pull setup, and it was cheap).


TOTAL COST - $1400.00​


So there you have. My complete build from the ground up. What do you think? Should any major changes be made? Or should I avoid buyers remorse with this setup, lol.


Edit:
Changed motherboard to Asus p8z68-v for $110. *thanks Danny Bui.
 
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How many of the listed price are "after rebate prices"? Which of those rebates have you actually received?

Several parts are a concern:
- The case because it's gonna be fairly cramped especially considering that you're planning on using the GTX 580. I highly recommend getting a new case ASAP.

- The motherboard because it only has a one year warranty which is crap considering that similarity priced mobos from MC has 3 year warranties. Not to mention that the HardOCP reviews of the Z68 versions of that mobo was not good at all.

- The GPU because it's used if I'm reading that correctly which means that if you have an issue with it, you may be SOL and JWF if it's the kind of issue that requires warranty service.

- The CPU because, despite its good price, is still overkill for you're doing with the PC. The extra cash you spent on the CPU could have gone towards a faster and more reliable SSD or a new GPU.

- Make sure that you update the firmware on that SSD ASAP to minimize the chance of random BSODs. With that said, still wouldn't gone with this SSD due to the fact that it's slower than other SSDs and still has that random BSOD issue.
 
Danny Bui said:
How many of the listed price are "after rebate prices"? Which of those rebates have you actually received?

Several parts are a concern:
- The case because it's gonna be fairly cramped especially considering that you're planning on using the GTX 580. I highly recommend getting a new case ASAP.

- The motherboard because it only has a one year warranty which is crap considering that similarity priced mobos from MC has 3 year warranties. Not to mention that the HardOCP reviews of the Z68 versions of that mobo was not good at all.

- The GPU because it's used if I'm reading that correctly which means that if you have an issue with it, you may be SOL and JWF if it's the kind of issue that requires warranty service.

- The CPU because, despite its good price, is still overkill for you're doing with the PC. The extra cash you spent on the CPU could have gone towards a faster and more reliable SSD or a new GPU.

- Make sure that you update the firmware on that SSD ASAP to minimize the chance of random BSODs. With that said, still wouldn't gone with this SSD due to the fact that it's slower than other SSDs and still has that random BSOD issue.
Click to expand...

The only price up there that is "after rebate" is the monitor. I bought the monitor about 6 months ago though and received the rebate about 4 months ago.

As far as the case goes, I have a 650d sitting here too I can migrate the system to if I need to.

Good catch on the mb warranty. Funny thing is right before I read this I asked the person purchasing the mb to get a asus p8z68-v @ $110 instead, lol.

I know what you're saying about the used gpu. This was one of those times where I weighed the risks and decided I thought it was worth it. The card does have a lifetime warranty and the seller has agreed to help (not that you can always trust that).

The gpu probably is overkill, you're right. But I do occasionally stream fraps @1080 while gaming so I thought it might help. Not to mention it's the same price as a 2500k on Newegg. I just don't know if $50 could get me much better of an ssd...?

I'll be sure to update the firmware, although I feel I can rely on Corsair to make any issues right if it comes down to it. I've always been treated very well by them. The speed of the ssd could very well be the deciding factor. I've read that this drive feels really fast in real world settings because of it's low access times. I'll give it a go, and if it feels slow, I'm confident I can get most, if not all of my money back reselling this. If I go that route I'll probably look for an M4 or a Force GT.

Thanks for the advice!
 
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Have used M4 SSDs in 2 systems. Very happy. Update the firmware for the M4 - there was a new release this month that fixes lockups after 5200+ hours of use. Set the BIOS to use AHCI instead of IDE mode for SSDs.

For cooling, I would just go Air. No need to worry about anything once it is installed. A nice air cooler (212+ or True Spirit 120) will cool do better than the H50. 212+ is available cheap form the Egg.
Stock cooler is fine if you are not overclocking. Just be sure to seat it properly.
 
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