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Pulling The Trigger Soon - Final Thoughts?

A

Airiq49

n00b
Joined
Nov 6, 2011
Messages
7
Approximate Purchase Date: Next week or two. (seeing if Black Friday shows anything interesting)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Internet, Movies

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: NewEgg

Country: USA

Parts Preferences: Intel i5 2500k

Overclocking: Never have, but will be learning.

SLI or Crossfire: In the future.

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

First section of parts list will be what I have already ordered/own and am using/reusing:

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive

OCZ GameXStream 600W ATX12V Power Supply

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

ASUS VH236H Black 23" 2ms Full HD Widescreen LCD Monitor w/ Speakers

This is what I will be ordering within the next week or two:

ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6950 Dirt3 Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory

End

After way-too-much research, this is what I have come up with. The power supply being used is only temporary, if it will work for me at all. I have absolutely no intention on using it for more than a month. Sooner if I can manage money-wise.

I have an external Sony USB DVD burner/reader that will act as my disk drive.

I also plan on upgrading the hard drive at some point, possibly SSD, but can't quite yet.

I feel like I'm leaving something out, which is possible with all the link insertions I put in. If anything looks amiss, feel free to let me know! My pride is dropped and I'm ready to know if this is a good build or not so I can be done with research and be on my way to a decent little computer. :)
 
How much, at most, are you willing to spend on parts?

Off the bat, I wouldn't recommend the AsRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 due to its comparatively shorter warranty. But what does that board have that, say, the Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 doesn't?

Are you grabbing the Sapphire HD 6950 Dirt3 Edition in an attempt to unlock it as an HD 6970?

The only issue that I have with your RAM selection is that the height of the heatspreaders may interfere with a third-party CPU cooler -- which is highly recommended for overclocking -- should you decide to install one later. Though you don't really need DDR3 1600 RAM for overclocking a Sandy Bridge processor, the price makes that point a minor nitpick.

I have serious reservations about your power supply, especially if you've had it for a few years. I recommend replacing that the first chance that you get. IIRC, the HD 6950 will be a tight fit inside your Nine Hundred case (the card itself is about 10.25 inches long), so you may want to also consider a new case.
 
Works for me. The 6950 will handle anything at 1920x1080. If you could stretch to the 6970 that would be better but they run nearly $100 more so may not be worth it to you if youre value shopping.

Not crazy about the latest ASRock boards. [H] recently reviewed a Z68 board and shit all over it. Toms had one of their 990FX boards and it overclocked way below the others. Id rather go with and Asus for the peace of mind. Gigabyte or EVGA being the next choice.

Only things I see missing are the DVD drive and OS.
 
You guys both nailed the one spot I wasn't confident in. The motherboard. So many variables and different choices. The $115 - $130 mark is roughly what I was aiming for. I have no attachment to the ASRock board at all and wouldn't mind changing that out.

For the remaining parts needed I am trying to stick to around $500 - $600. I've got my second baby coming in a few weeks so this is my last toy for a while.

I do plan on unlocking the 6970 if it's not too difficult. After reading that it could, I decided that I would... just a matter of making sure everything works correctly.

Good to know about the case size. I'll see what I can manage and then will replace the case if need be.

I really don't want to use this old PSU, but as I said, with the budget I may be forced to for just a short while. Do you guys have any suggestions on a good PSU to look for as an upgrade, and possibly in preparation of Crossfire?

Also, forgot to mention that I have Windows 7 on standby.
 
I see a few issues with your build. Though im not the most experienced in new hardware, here is my thoughts, take it as you will.

OCZ PSU isnt the best unit, go with a more solid name brand, say antec gamers, or HCP series. Bad power ruins everything from hardware, to stability.

Drop the seagate HDD, and look at a hitachi, or samsung spin point for performance.

Sapphire doesnt have the best warrenty, look at MSI or XFX etc.

Also see if you can squeeze an M4 SSD in, those boot times and system response time to do things, is deadly. Worth every penny IMO.
 
Nothing wrong with Sapphire. Ive run a couple of their cards and have had no issues with them. Even got my rebate back. Id gladly buy them again.
 
Not saying anything wrong with the card. However the warrenty is lacking compaired to other card, of similar performance, in similar price range. All up to you, but if I could get a card with more warrenty, same performance, same price, why not?
 
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